America is such an awesome place for so many reasons. People are passionate no matter where you go whether it is down to the local Walmart store, on the slopes of Vail or in the Streets of New York. Often people the world over put Americans in an unfair box; loud, abnoxious, overly-opinionated, political and entrepreneurial. Other than the latter, I tend to disagree. It doesn't help that there are so many thousands of websites out there trying to "brand" Americans as such.

I read today a website that called New Yorkers stressed, unfriendly but intellectually inclined while their Georgia and Florida countrymen are sociable and energetic. Whereas, I personally find New Yorkers fast paced but friendly, intelligent and very knowledgable on all that New York has to offer and above all else, passionate and in love with the city that they live in. Georgia and Florida is similar in some ways but less fast paced because they don't live in the city that never sleeps and are more able to identify with open space and nature. One thing I have identified with the Americans that I have met is that they tend to be 'into' so many things that mostly, I have never heard of. They are so up-to-date with the latest and greatest, that I wonder how they find time to do anything else.

Like for instance, I was driving in a car with a friend in Denver and they asked me if I use Pandora. My immediate reaction was that "no, I am not into Pandora" as I thought he was talking about the jewellery brand that is very popular in Australia and overseas.

We were having totally different conversations. Something that I have become quite use to through my international travels with the Australian accent being very hard for most people to understand and the fact we call "garbage" - "rubbish", "bangs" - "fringe" and so on, adding to language barrier issues.

Pandora, is an iphone application that brings radio to a new era. It provides personalised, mobile and free music that is tailored to your individual taste in music. For instance, if I like Black Eyed Peas, chances are that I would like songs from Kings of Leon. Through algarithms, the application tailors a music selection based on the songs you like and makes selection without you even having to 'find songs' like many other similar types of applications force you to do.

This got me thinking. How well do we know our customers and how well do we profile them to ensure that we "talk their language" and "give them what they want and need" in business? If a Marketing Eye client is open to proximity marketing then chances are that they would be open to other mobile marketing techniques, iphone applications and so on. Through algarithms, I am sure we could model our clients according to not just what products or services we want to sell, but what they are as individuals open to.

How often do marketing companies use psychological profiling on their clients to know them better and explore their personality traits to accomodate a better service offering? Think about your business and your customers and see what tools you can use to improve your customer profiling to better service their needs and make the sales process more succinct.

Mellissah Smith is a serial entrepreneur and business leader with more than 20 years' experience in marketing.

Mellissah Smith is a marketing expert, author, writer, public speaker and technology innovator. Having worked with more than 300 companies across technology, medical device, professional services, manufacturing, logistics, finance and health industries, Mellissah has a well-established reputation as an experienced marketing professional with more than 20 years experience. As the founder and managing director of Marketing Eye, she has taken the company from startup to a multi-million dollar enterprise with offices in Australia and the US. Mellissah is also the Editor in Chief of Marketing Eye Magazine, a quarterly magazine that cover marketing, entrepreneurship, travel, health and wellbeing. #mellissah #marketingeye

1 comment

Good to hear that you're enjoying your time in the USA. New York is indeed one of the most impressive places to visit.

With regard to psychological profiling, it is closely related to consumer psychology, which in my opinion is one of the most intriguing branches of the marketing field.

Back in the day I always thought that marketers were masterminds who knew how to use psychology to their advantage and 'encourage' people to buy their products. In reality, it is surprising how little psychology is used in marketing.

Customer profiling should be based on at least a basic understanding of psychology. I would recommend having a look at a book by Robert B. Cialdini called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It is one fascinating read and I keep going back to it for ideas.

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter the (*) required information where indicated. HTML code is not allowed.